I process online and in-person, will I need two accounts?

Usually, the answer to this question is no. However, there are instances where we may require two separate accounts for your online and retail sales. Typically, if your business is an in-person, retail establishment and you need to add just a few online orders every month, we can add that to your current account. Similarly – if you’re a card-not-present merchant, there is no problem with swiping a card through a terminal when you have the opportunity.

Scenarios where we’ll need two accounts emerge when merchants have two distinct lines of business. If you are processing 50% of your sales through a website selling wholesale orders of your goods while simultaneously selling the other 50% in a truly retail environment, then we may consider those unique lines of business. It’s often to the merchant’s benefit to have independent accounts, though – MCC codes that are specific to certain lines of business won’t apply to others, which could result in higher fees. For example, a merchant sells ice cream sandwiches at $3.00 each to consumers, but also sells bulk orders of ice cream sandwiches to restaurants in the area for $2,000/order. This merchant would save a lot of money if he could accept Quick-Service Interchange rates for his low-value ice-cream sandwich sales – but he can’t, because he’ll be classified as a Business-2-Business merchant due to his large sales volume. The end result is that this merchant will pay higher interchange rates on his low-value sales, which can really add up.

Two accounts solves this problem – this merchant will receive the ideal rate for both lines of his business, and will also be able to more easily differentiate his sales and deposits, and will allow us to better monitor his account for fraud. Often times, having a second account can make your life easier.